Destiny Udogie exclusive: What happened away from football was a shock, something Id never experienced before, I dont wish it on anyone but Spurs have really helped me and everything is good now, I dont think about it any more
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that finally gave us not one, not two, but three official matches for "Saturday Night's Main Event" on December 13! Yes, John Cena's pitch appears to be coming to fruition, as NXT stars will wrestle main roster stars on the "SNME" undercard, while GUNTHER fulfilled the prophecy and defeated LA Knight to become Cena's final opponent. All in all, a productive night of booking at the very least, even if "SNME" appears as though it will not feature any titles on the line thanks to Dominik Mysterio's Survivor Series win.
As usual, the WINC staff won't be able to hit quite everything in this column we didn't have much to say about Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes this week, which is perhaps an indictment in and of itself but if you missed anything you can always catch up via our "SmackDown" results page. If you want to know what the WINC crew thought of Friday night's festivities, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 12/5/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"
I'm not usually one to be begging for a superstar shakeup, or WWE Draft, or whatever you want to call it, but I really think it's beyond time for one, but sadly, we're not likely to get one before WrestleMania at this point, I'd imagine. As much as I love Drew McIntyre, I am once again complaining that he's involved in a feud where it doesn't appear that he ever emerges victorious, and I'm getting really tired of that for him. It's worse for McIntyre when it involves a championship, and that's happening once again with him and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. The pair are on course for another match, despite Rhodes defeating McIntyre at the most recent Saturday Night's Main Event.
McIntyre beating up Rhodes on his bus two weeks ago on "SmackDown" wasn't just for WarGames build, but rather, to continue this feud beyond Survivor Series. I don't know why I thought we'd be going in a different direction with the title following Survivor Series, but Icertainly feel pretty silly now. While the camera angles and shots of Rhodes beating up McIntyre in his vehicle to open "SmackDown" tonight were cool, I'm just so tired of this feud already, because I know McIntyre isn't going to win the title. That was made more apparent than ever with Rhodes versus Roman Reigns III seemingly being set up following WarGames, and I'd imagine that's for the title at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas next year. If everyone who challenges Rhodes between now and then is just going to lose, there needs to be some other challengers who haven't already lost (and consistently lose big matches) like McIntyre.
Rhodes beating up "The Scottish Psychopath" also didn't really need to happen tonight at all if there wasn't going to be another brawl or any real payoff later on in the show. There wasn't much room for that to happen on the show tonight, as we had GUNTHER and LA Knight competing in the finals of the "Last Time is Now" tournament, so this really could have been put off another week. Any other time, it would have been easier for WWE to at least attempt to further a story, though it's one that McIntyre is never going to win.
Written by DaisyRuth
The spirit of Cena's "Last Time is Now" tournament was, in part, to give opportunities to up-and-coming stars. Even though the dream has gone up in dust following the appointment of former WWE World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER as "The Never-Seen Seventeen's" final opponent, several WWE Superstars are taking from Cena's intentions. As of Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown," both Cody Rhodes and Bayley are set to face off the hottest stars from WWE's developmental program, "NXT," under Washington D.C.'s bright lights at "Saturday Night's Main Event."
As of writing, WWE Undisputed Champion Rhodes is set to go up against the victor of Ricky Saints and Oba Femi's "NXT" Deadline clash for Saints' "NXT" Championship. While Rhodes will not be putting up his world title for grabs in D.C. (boo, but you can't win them all), this is still an incredible opportunity for both Saints and Femi, who could very well use this momentum to make an explosive main roster debut. If Saints wins at Deadline, then it will be an AEW re-hash, as the two former colleagues and documented friends share the ring for the first time in WWE. If Femi wins, then it will be a showdown between one of WWE's current main eventers and one of its future main eventers. Rhodes' gold is not up for grabs, but this opportunity is rich enough in and of itself: put on a show with Rhodes, and there's your ticket to the big leagues. Their in-ring style might not be your cup of tea, but the opportunity alone is exciting enough.
Bayley's match with Sol Ruca was the second contest announced Friday, and while neither women hold gold, this opportunity is, again, gold itself. Bayley is a trailblazer in this business: she is a member of the extremely exclusive Four Horsewomen club, she is the first-ever WWE Women's Grand Slam champion, and she has earned nearly every accolade on the roster literally, the GOAT. Ruca, in her very young career, has held the "NXT" Women's North American Championship and the WWE Women's Speed title simultaneously. She has crazy momentum, is incredibly over, and would reap huge benefits from a lock-up with Bayley. This is such a boon to Ruca's career, and take into account how good these two are in-ring? They will tear the house down.
Let's be honest: WWE goofed several times during Cena's retirement tour, and the appointment of a well-established former world champion to retire Cena rather than an up-and-comer, as Cena might have intended is just another example of WWE dropping the ball. I am, however, happy that the spirit of Cena's goodbye tour has been retained in Rhodes and Bayley's upcoming "Saturday Night's Main Event" matches.
Written by Angeline Phu
This week saw the latest edition of WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill's conflict with Women's United States Champion Chelsea Green, with Cargill squashing Green's proxy in Alba Fyre after less than two minutes. Cargill only won the title at the beginning of last month, dethroning Tiffany Stratton in just five and a half minutes at Saturday Night's Main Event. Prior to this week's exercise, she had also beaten B-Fab after less than three minutes. And that has been the story of Cargill's reign.
For her part, Green also won the title on "WWE SmackDown" in November, dethroning Giulia after a minute and a half. She has since been on her interpromotional excursion alongside Ethan Page, becoming AAA Mixed Tag Team Champion. But there has yet to have been a new credible challenger built for her title aside from former champion Giulia; which, even then, she was treated more of an outsider. So it feels like Cargill and Green are feuding out of a lack of options, or mayhaps the lack of an effort to create options, rather than a Champion vs. Champion bout with a big-fight feel. Putting the titles in such close proximity with no challengers made clear for either of them lessens the importance of them.
It was a night that saw Rhea Ripley return to the side of Damian Priest, while Kairi Sane and Alexa Bliss continued the Tag Team Championship feud between the Kabuki Warriors and Char-lexa. But all that can be found for the purported World Champion of the brand's division was the purported champion of the midcard. And even still, the matches are squash matches designed to position Cargill as a monster. One could argue that kind of booking is better placed for someone before they become champion, but even if there was someone that appeared ready to step into the title picture it wouldn't be so bad.
It's just a shame that there doesn't really seem to be a long-term plan for Cargill, at the current stage in time anyway. The nature of the WWE product is that this could change next week. But in the absence of that foresight, there's not much to be enjoyed about the current creative.
Written by Max Everett
Damian Priest has been feuding with Aleister Black for what feels like forever now, and it feels like it's been going on so long that the addition of Zelina Vega alongside her husband no longer feels fresh or new. Tonight, I was pleasantly surprised at the video promo introducing a reunited Terror Twins team of Priest and former Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley to take on Black and Vega in mixed tag action next week. For whatever reason, I didn't picture a mixed tag team match where Vega would team alongside her husband, but if we're getting this match to do something different, I'm more than okay with that.
Black and Priest's last match occurred back on October 10. That's the street fight bout that saw Vega join her husband, which was initially a pretty big surprise. Since then, Priest was briefly involved in the "Last Time is Now" tournament, but other than that match against Rusev, his main focus has been backstage segments and promos in his feud with Black, making things pretty bland and uninteresting, because those segments hadn't been leading to anything. Adding Ripley into the mix is a shot in the arm that this feud needs, even if it's just because she's such a star and fans across both brands can't get enough of her. It thankfully at least makes sense, as it's pretty common knowledge, even in kayfabe, that Priest and Ripley are close friends.
While Ripley is still tied up with her friendship and tag team with IYO SKY over on "WWE Raw," and the pair are looking for the opportunity to challenge for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, this is still a breath of fresh air when it comes to this "SmackDown" feud. The video tonight made it clear that WWE is keeping her storylines separate, which is good, as I doubt the Terror Twins' feud with Black and Vega stops at next week's mixed tag match. I do think it all ends, however, with a Priest victory, hopefully one in a mixed tag match alongside his friend somewhere along the line, and both Priest and Black can move on to better things.
Written byDaisy Ruth
I actually really liked Solo Sikoa's promo on "SmackDown," and MFT vs. the Wyatt Sicks isn't the least exciting program that's ever taken place. That said, I was annoyed at the absence this week not just of Sami Zayn, but of any member of his five-man team from last week's traditional Survivor Series match. I don't mind moving on from that feud, but I thought everyone involved put in pretty good work, and considering we had WarGames competitors wrestling tonight, I don't really buy "selling the loss" as a good explanation for why none of them had anything to do as a follow-up.
Obviously I am Sami Zayn guy, so I'm biased. Based on recent news stories it looks like my dream of Sami winning the Saudi Royal Rumble might not be in the cards, which is fine, but you'd think WWE would at least want to heat the guy up some before they return to a place where he's so beloved. Zayn arrived on "SmackDown" and immediately rescued the floundering blue brand from what had been an absolute nadir of in-ring production; he won the US title, restored the open challenge, had a match with John Cena, put on several critically acclaimed bangers, and put over Ilja Dragunov so hard he's still riding that momentum six weeks later. It kinda sucks to see Zayn's hard work be rewarded by ... well, nothing, really.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
With the amount of tournaments that take place in the modern day landscape of professional wrestling, they can kind of blend together and the finals of them can oftentimes tend not to stand out. GUNTHER and LA Knight showed how to make the finals of a tournament a memorable occasion that felt important and interesting to watch during their finals match in The Last Time Is Now Tournament.
Unlike many of the matches that we tend to see in WWE these days, this one actually told a really clear and engaging story through the utilization of some great in-ring psychology. Knight doing everything that he could in his power to hang on against the powerhouse that is GUNTHER throughout the entire contest was proof of just how much he was willing to fight for the huge opportunity to call himself John Cena's final ever opponent at Saturday Night's Main Event. On top of all that, it was a nice touch to see both GUNTHER and Knight pay tribute to Cena in the finals of a tournament centered around him by including a couple of Attitude Adjustments and Knight tapping out to a cravat that GUNTHER had locked in on him that looked suspiciously like an STF. It may have been subtle, but still kept the focus of things on Cena and was a fun little easter egg for eagled eye fans to find.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
